Investing in Volunteers
Investing in Volunteers Accreditation
Durham University Volunteering and Outreach (DUVO) is proud to be an Investing in Volunteers achiever, having been awarded the quality standard in 2024 for the 3rd time. It shows that we value our volunteers, both staff and student, and demonstrates our commitment to supporting volunteering within the University community.
Volunteering and Community Partnership Senior Manager, Katie Binks comments on how “achieving this re-accreditation has highlighted to us the fact that we are heading in the right direction with volunteering. We have adapted much of what we deliver since we last held the status back in 2021, and this assessment has enabled us to benchmark what we have achieved against what our development areas were back then, and it emphasises how much we have exceeded our own expectations. As a team, we are collaborative and utilise each other’s strengths to achieve the best possible outcomes as a whole department – with one of the key focus’ being on our volunteers, so they are prepared to go out, represent the university and support our local community as best they can”.
Investing in Volunteers (IiV) is the UK quality standard for all organisations involving volunteers. IiV aims to improve the quality of the volunteering experience for all volunteers and demonstrates that organisations value the enormous contribution made by volunteers. At Durham University, we understand the importance of volunteering in the local community, and our volunteers recognise the impact on the community and personal development.
Part of the re-accreditation process involves speaking to volunteers about their experiences. Feedback is anonymised but to one student volunteering means, “I get to speak to lots of local people in the community, this is important as I am an international student from Japan. I volunteer in the Castle and the visitor experience is very important for me, helping other visitors connect with the county, possibly even country for the first time. Doing this has given me so much more confidence speaking to people, improving my English as well as all the other cultural benefits – it has really helped improve my mental health too.”
DUVO was assessed against six quality areas and proved the excel in all, which are vision for volunteering, planning for volunteers, volunteer inclusion, recruiting and welcoming volunteers, supporting volunteers, and finally valuing and development of volunteers. Further information about the Quality Standard can be found here.
Through our commitment to continuous development we have identified the need to further strengthen our offering; one area of focus being the efficiency and accessibility of our volunteer management platform. We have been in discussions with the developers and have committed to introducing an app version of the platform to make accessing and tracking volunteering easier for volunteers, and our student volunteer leadership committee. We will be launching the app in the next academic year, but in the meantime, if you’re interested in viewing our current volunteering opportunities the platform can be found here for staff, and students.